San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick has found holes in opposing defenses and the CBA.

Thanks to the collective bargaining agreement that the NFL and NFLPA negotiated in July 2011, what San Francisco is paying Kaepernick to take the team to Super Bowl XLVII is a steal. And the Seattle Seahawks are paying even less to quarterback Russell Wilson, who took the team to the divisional playoff round and set up the franchise for the next decade.

There might not be two athletes in any sport as underpaid as Kaepernick and Wilson, two NFC West quarterbacks who figure to square off for years to come. It's off-the-charts ridiculousness, their salaries. It's thievery, nearly criminal.

Sixty minutes from a world championship, Kaepernick is finishing up Year Two of a four-year, $5.12 million deal that is worth more than $3 million less in full than what Mark Sanchez will make from the New York Jets next season.

Yet Kaepernick has no out. He is locked into the deal until after the 2013 season.

Wilson's deal is even more glaringly incongruous. He signed a four-year, $2.99 million deal that is worth $6 million less in full than what Kevin Kolb is scheduled to make from Seattle's division rival Arizona Cardinals next season.

Like Kaepernick, Wilson has no way out. He is stuck with the deal until after the 2014 season, despite being added to the Pro Bowl this week and looking like he could go for years to come.

These two deals expose one of the biggest weaknesses in the CBA for the players and one of the biggest strengths for owners. Young NFL players have no choice but to suck it up for three years, even if they play at the level Kaepernick and Wilson have. Meanwhile, NFL owners get to build cheaply through the draft and own players' rights for five to six years, without the threat of arbitration that Major League Baseball has.

This is why good scouting and draft picks really are more valuable than ever before. The NFL never has seen good labor this cheap for this long.

How the league got here is easy enough to understand. During the most recent CBA negotiations, we saw an extreme backlash against the outlandish deals given to top draft picks in previous years, when a player such as former No. 1 overall pick JaMarcus Russell walked away with $32 million in guaranteed money. So much attention was given to the issue that standout rookies in the new 10-year CBA now are being punished for it. In part because of Russell, Kaepernick and Wilson are underpaid.

There is no reprieve, no chance to be paid until a player has given a team three seasons. By then, some running backs, such as an Alfred Morris, will have plenty of wear on their tires. And as everyone prepares for Super Bowl XLVII, the storylines that follow it will be different than in the past.

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The Seahawks get to hang onto Russell Wilson at his current bargain price for two more seasons.
Young players such as Kaepernick who help lead their team to the Super Bowl cannot demand new deals the way they seemed to regularly in the past. It used to be like this: Player helps team to Super Bowl, player demands new deal, team rewards player for helping team, new deal gets done.

But that was old-school. New-school is the ultimate form of detention for standout young players. The CBA locks up their contracts for three years and throws away the key, with no chance of parole.

It would be much more equitable if certain allowances were made for extreme examples, players who glaringly outplay expectations. It would be hard to define what that level of play is, but suffice it to say that everyone would know. Any player who helps lead his team to the Super Bowl in his second year, as Kaepernick has done, or goes to the Pro Bowl in his first year, the way Wilson has, deserves to be rewarded, at least more than his existing rookie deal does.

Until the rules are adjusted, the players will continue to be wronged. And after watching Kaepernick and Wilson this season and seeing what they will earn in future seasons, one truth is self-evident: The holes in the CBA are a lot bigger than any they find in opposing defenses.

"He had no teeth, and he was slobbering all over himself. I'm thinking, 'You can have your money back, just get me out of here. Let me go be an accountant." I can't tell you how badly I wanted out of there."Denver rookie QB John Elway, on Jack Lambert, after Lambert and the Steelers knocked Elway out of his first game as a pro (1983).

Rookies have to play 3 years before a new deal nothing wrong with that.

Nope...

__________________

Quote:

"He had no teeth, and he was slobbering all over himself. I'm thinking, 'You can have your money back, just get me out of here. Let me go be an accountant." I can't tell you how badly I wanted out of there."Denver rookie QB John Elway, on Jack Lambert, after Lambert and the Steelers knocked Elway out of his first game as a pro (1983).

if they are going to restrict them from not renegotiating for 3 years then every single drafted rookie should have a 4 year GUARANTEED contract...

It's not...

__________________

Quote:

"He had no teeth, and he was slobbering all over himself. I'm thinking, 'You can have your money back, just get me out of here. Let me go be an accountant." I can't tell you how badly I wanted out of there."Denver rookie QB John Elway, on Jack Lambert, after Lambert and the Steelers knocked Elway out of his first game as a pro (1983).

As a result of last year’s NFL lockout, which resulted in a new collective bargaining agreement between the NFL and NFLPA, changes have been made to the structure of rookie NFL contracts. With the first round of the 2012 NFL Draft set to kick-off on Thursday, April 26, RulingSports.com reached out to NFL agent Mark Slough of Ascent Sports to learn more about how NFL rookie contracts are structured. This year, Ascent Sports has 22 clients in the NFL Draft.

The first thing Slough noted about rookie contracts under the new CBA, is that “They’re all very similar.” Under the new CBA, changes were made to the structure of NFL rookie contracts. These changes largely favor the NFL clubs, as one of the big factors during negotiation of the new CBA, was suppressing rookie salaries. Under the new CBA, rookies that are drafted receive four-year contracts. If a rookie is drafted in the first round, clubs can exercise a fifth-year option for the player’s rights. According to Slough, “In all likelihood, unless [the player] flames out, it will be a five-year deal for first rounders.” If a rookie is undrafted, he will receive a three-year contract.

As for the type of salary NFL rookies can expect to earn under their contracts, Slough noted that rookies receive “minimum salaries under the CBA.” This season, the minimum salary is $390,000.00. In 2013, this year’s rookies can expect to earn $480,000.00 in salary. In 2014, they’ll earn $570,000.00 in salary.

As for first round draft picks, the amount of salary they’ll receive in their fifth year of play if their option is picked up by their respective team, depends upon where they were selected in the first round. According to Slough, “If a player is picked 1-10, then the 5th year option is going to be the average of the top-10 players at the respective player’s position. So, if you’re quarterback and go number-two in the Draft, then your fifth year option salary will be the average of the top-ten quarterbacks. The option is exercised after the third season, so it would be based upon the top-ten quarterback salaries at that time. If you’re picked 11-32, then the 5th year club option is the average salary of the top 3rd through 25th player in that position.”

While salaries for rookies are standard in NFL contracts, certain items present in a rookie’s contract can make his earnings higher than other rookies’ earnings. According to Slough, “The general rule, is that the majority of these contracts are going to look pretty identical, except for the amount of a signing bonus a player receives.” The size of a rookie’s signing bonus depends upon where he is drafted and this is one area in which an agent can successfully negotiate higher earnings for his client. “The amount of the signing bonus is negotiable. We operate under an unofficial sliding scale system,” Slough said. Thus, the number-one NFL Draft pick will receive a higher bonus than the second pick, and so on.

One area in which agents no longer can negotiate higher earnings for their clients under the new CBA, is escalators. Under previous CBAs, “agents used to be able to negotiate all kinds of escalators into the contracts,” according to Slough. For instance, if the player played a certain percentage of the time, his agent could negotiate contract terms so that he would be paid more for his playing time. However, under the new CBA, escalators are standardized. According to Slough, players drafted in rounds three through seven receive a “proven performance” escalator, that goes into effect during their fourth season of play. The escalator these players receive, is based upon them playing 35 percent of the time during two of their first three seasons, or an average of 35 percent of the time during their first three years. If a player hits either of these benchmarks, then in their fourth season of play, their salary will escalate to the right of first refusal amount.

The role of an agent in terms of negotiating rookie contracts has greatly changed as a result of the new NFL CBA. “Truthfully, there’s not a lot of negotiation in rookie contracts anymore for agents. Your job really becomes focusing on the time leading up to the draft and getting through the draft process. Then, your job becomes everything that comes post-draft. There’s a lot of other things that agents can do and be an asset to our clients beyond contract negotiation,” noted Slough.

As pointed out by agent David Canter, incoming players will not be able to renegotiate contracts before the end of the third season on their rookie contracts. Undrafted players can renegotiate after their second year.